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Cathedral
The Cathedral is description of location Last's Sermons 1/3/241 :The Book of One speaks of the formation of Horae, how we came to be, and of the many blessings the Goddess has gifted to us, crests, our continent, and so forth. :In the beginning, there was nothing. :The Goddess found loneliness in the vast emptiness. :And then there Was existence. :And then we Were. :It began with a man and a woman. The man to represent the soul of the Goddess and her love, and the woman her flesh and mind. :Fair maiden born from the seas of divinity, Her hands scraped land and made canyons, her tears fell to earth and made oceans, her hair fell to soil, rooted in its place and created vegetation. Yet there was no life, no abundance of joy, no semblance of more. In her loneliness she crafted the forms of birds plucked from the thread of her lashes, she made fish with the excess of her nails, and then life from that point spiraled. With water and soil she made mud. She molded man, she molded woman. Her first loves to liven this world in her stead as she went away, leaving more people in her wake. A mother whose love lived in the essence of the world. :Man and woman firstborn were a pair whose connection to their earthen mother was irrefutable. The crests on their flesh imbued with her love as she had once laid her lush lips upon her creations. They were adored and would continue to be until their last breath. Every creation was smothered in their creators touch, in her maternity and splendor. Through the land they were all one, through their crests they were united. Human life sprouted throughout the world, they rose from dust and toiled away to create civilization. Man and Woman firstborn had remained in their heaven, lovingly tucked away as their hands once intertwined. A promise of eternity that would be kept till dusk merged with dawn. :Man and woman first born, they built paradise. They extended their garden to amass the land of which they rooted from. As they were loved by their mother, they would love those she treasured too. The first community, family found in what was once barren land. Relations birthed in abundance, Man and Woman first born spoke in adulation while surrounded by their people, "You whose name I will never know. You are either my kin, my light, or the bearer of my torch. You may be my tutor in traversing the paths of life we do not yet know. We will watch the herbage grow and our brethren age too then when the pulse of your heartbeat stops, I will see the stars rain down upon us in memory of you. I will catch the enclave of your life and sow it into the place you once stood to be born again as another. Your child will be embraced, will join our body of life unexplored. :The tremor of their hearts, the luminance of their crests. Drawn with gentleness into their forms was the Goddess's love and their love for one another. Knees bent in the soil, dirtied by pebble and leaves as they pulled from the land. Dined at one table, slept in benevolent embrace. They thrived in the bosom of the earth, enriched by wind, water, and trees. The abode of man's first heaven whose only saintly guides were each other. Curiosity fixed in their feeble minds and soft bodies. They promised one another that even with land inbetween each other, they would never wholly be apart. A fraction of man journeyed into the dark, heaven laid behind them and yet they chose for more. Water moved land, rivers became borders, lakes became sacred monuments, oceans became impassable to the peninsula of their once beloved. The tears of what once was had been their obstacle and separation had became their embodiment. The sun departed, the moon arose, the sun was born, the moon withered, the two would conjoin and move apart again. Time became measured and so did the territory of kingdoms freshly birthed. :Brother fought brother for a glimpse of wealth, sister brawled sister for imparted opulence. The soil they once loved became cartridges of greed. The pricelessness of their womb became appraised with ease. Wet behind the ears, water in their eyes, the liquid of their life drained from them with each passing day. Heaven now looked so far away. Yet love remained, the instinct to hold, to cherish, and wed endured. A matrimony meant to be pure, a practice meant to be sacred and blessed by the Goddess herself. The first child untouched by her kiss, A crestless child. The first heretic to be born. :The world they knew collapsed. The Goddess's eyes who strayed from the ones who abandoned her and in turn she did the same. Brethren knew bloodshed when their blade was drawn and aimed at the ones before them. Descendants of those who once laughed and loved together now adversaries who'd rob each other of life. :The man firstborn turned to his wife and spoke in pity, "If our mother does not love them. If war is but a resultant of a single life. Extinguish the flame, let it know peace. Rejoin the abyss we came from and be cherished in a cold touch. :The woman first born, her tears knew anger. Her heart felt ache, hands clasped as she looked at her husband, "I will not abide by your words. I am a mother many times, If my own mother will forsake the life I made then I will forsake her too. This child, loved and born from people like you and I. Eyes yet to open, mouth yet to speak, and feet yet to begin chasing after a dream. What right do we have or our mother to cast it aside. She loved us once, she frees them now. Why must a child pay the price? :Even lovers become enemies when their eyes do not align. Across a field of cadaver and fire. The woman first born let out a bitter laugh, "Didn't you promise to love me for my lifetime?" The first man gazed out into the horizon. Scarlet, orange, obscured by green and yet he did not feel free, "Dusk merged with dawn. The end of us and the start of tomorrow." The war lasted until the child came of age to lift a sword of their own and lasted even after that child had gone from the world, leaving behind the seeds of their legacy. Wife looked upon husband with a lack of triumph n her eyes and a spear pointed at his throat. She remained unchanged by time and war with blood mixed tears streaming down her cheeks. A defeated smile while victory was hers, "The win is mine my love, His blood remains part of the earth. His children are beautiful. If they had fit your image, might you have loved them?" Husband stared back, age woven into his mind, a quake in his bones, a flicker still in his heart, "I would have adored them." She looked upon him, hurt, "So it was only this that caused you to despise them?" He looked at the glint of blade, Yes." It was the last thing he saw. She fell to the floor as she cradled his body in her arms. Centuries of hatred indistinguishable from centuries of love. Generations had passed between them, She stood tall with eternity lapsing in her features. He changed unbearingly, his eyes darkened, his cheeks sunk, and his flesh shrank as the years encroached him but he'd come anew as he always did. Whispering to his corpse as she brushed a hair from his face, "You who embodies the Goddess's love. You never loved me as much as I loved you." :The first woman amongst the tides of eventuality that lapped at her legs. She didn't budge as she watched civilization be built, be improved upon, and while her brethren and their descendants never stopped fighting. While they fell away and decayed at her feet, she stayed the same. A silent vow to herself, She'd protect them. While she cannot save everyone, she will save the thought of you. Sister even though you're gone, she remembers you, your life filters through the tide. Brother even though you wronged, she remembers you, your sins wade and dissipate in the water. You will be purified and young again. In her viable guardianship of life, of the world and what remains. Her love had opened her eyes again, she wrapped her hands around her waist and tenderly set her forehead upon hers with intertwined fingertips, "I missed you my love, You are as beautiful as I remember." Her wife laid a hand on her cheek and stared back at her, "So are you." Conflict was constant, suffering was inevitable, life was ever changing but their promise remained. A tender kiss, a love that lingered on the borders of worship, "I will be with you until dusk merges with dawn." :The final stroke of time. The ending of spring. : 1/12/241 : :Today, we leave behind our discontent. We leave behind our anger and hatred. We leave our revenge Our sorrows Our sins '' : ''Today is a day blessed by the Goddess And therefore today, I have all I need To breathe in her love and her gifts Today we will remain content : She is all we Need And will keep us Full on her love From the plants she grows for us To the air she purifies To the sun that warms our cheeks '' : ''She is all we Need '' : ''Goddess grow in me as the sprouts of spring blossom and flourish Guide me towards your radiance Towards your everlasting garden '' : ''We are all your flowers And in your love, we shall bloom : Today please grow within us Grow love Grow joy Grow peace Grow self control Grow gentleness Grow kindness : Our life is good Our life is blessed And with you, we shall be Content : As the seed within the earth, the Goddess is planted within us. She grows within us and therefore we grow with Her. We are her flowers and we shall make her garden flourish. Today we have gathered lilies, grown with careful love and care, thanks to certain blessed students here. : And we should go forward in the day with the hardiness and blessings of these sacred flower in mind. Book of Spring, chapter 3, line 28, reads: "Why must we concern ourselves with the beauty of self, when the strength and beauty of lilies graces the fields of Eden." I want to begin with a consideration: What is superficiality. Why do we concern ourselves with our presentation towards others. Our lives are temporary until the day we return to the soil and giveth back to the planet. Momentary blessings of experience granted to us by Her. One day we will become the trees and the flora and be fed upon by the fauna of this world. In the end, we should aspire to be Lilies. And in our present, we should aspire to replicate them. : Lilies are gifts of the Goddess, a natural blessing given to us by Her, and not Man. The Goddess, through her love, will always grace us with small beauties in our chaotic world. These flowers grow in many landscapes. Even ones torn and ravaged by war and the hatred of Men. They are not weeds or nuisances. Consider your past pains, your past sorrows, your anger and your remorse. Your internal and external wars may make you feel as if you have been destroyed, but much like a Lily, through the Goddess's love, you can heal and grow through any pain. And she is here to water you. You are beautiful in her love, and graced beneath her sun. You are not like a weed, but an individual and perfect gift in this world. She made you exactly the way she wanted, and you bless all those around you with your beauty. : Even without the intervention of man, Lilies will grow wherever they please. Despite what those around you may attempt to force you to believe, you are but a Lily in the Goddess's eyes, and can flourish through your own strength and through her love. Lilies will grow in the alpine tundras, polar climates where life has difficulty thriving. They will grow in the desert, beneath the beating heat of the sun and predators that leave tracks in the dirt. They will grow in the shade. In the sun. In fields and in cities. Lilies are one across the whole world, and just as they are one, so is Mankind. Why rage war in our differences when we are all the same. Why judge and fall to the sin of superficiality when we are one. Through the Goddess, we may find this similarity and peace. Lilies will grow behind the largest walls, behind the strongest barriers. Nowhere is off limits to the Goddess's love, and no one should be off limits to the love and patience of each other. : In other ways Lilies are a blessing, they have medicinal uses as well. In regards to anxiety and concern, they give positive benefits for these worries. Scientists in Laestrygonia and Eden have discovered a chemical called Convallatoxin. It can be used in medicines for heart health, specifically for chronic heart failure. Concern, worry, stress- these all can narrow the arteries of the heart and negatively affect your health. Learn from the Lilies on a spiritual level. Know that you will bloom through any circumstance, you will survive. Allow your heart a rest. Allow yourself peace. : We've spoken earlier on the hardiness of lilies, and how they can grow in any landscape and connect us. Landscape and past experiences do not determine if you will bloom, rather it's the seed of the Goddess within you, the you within you that she created in perfection, that will bloom. Who are you in life, how you treat others, determines your blooming. You can have the world crumble you and you will still be a beautiful fragrance among others if you allow yourself such growth. This is what the Goddess wishes us to do with the gifts our lives. : Lilies are a basic principle of life gifted to us by the Goddess. No matter what happens in your life, you can come back from it. The principle of life is greater than the principle of death. These flowers may grow and be cut down, trampled by the rise of new cities and the superficial desire to keep tidy lawns and prim and proper manmade idealistic "beauty". But they always come back, even if caught under the dirt, their roots remain. You may be buried and down, you may feel trampled, but you will never be out. You can always come back. : The Goddess will always water and feed you with the gifts that she provides. From the food she raises from the earth, to the spring water we are blessed with here. Lilies may eventually pass, as all life does, but their beauty can teach us many lessons in kinship and kindness. In understanding that at our core, we are all the same. We have all had struggles, and all wish for peace, even if that desire is buried deep. Allow yourself peace in the knowledge others feel the same. Love is abundant in all of us, even if this love is hidden in the shade of our mind. The Goddess put so much thought and care into the creation of Lilies, and just as this creation, she has put just as much thought and care into each and everyone of you. : When you find yourself in times of anxiety and worry and self doubt, remember this fact. If the Goddess could put so much love and care into such a simple, beautiful thing, then her love and care in you is just the same. You are always important to her, and you will always bloom if you search for her gifts. Aide others as well in joining our garden, finding that peace and love, and one day perhaps the world will bloom in oneness and peace. : Today we will go forward with the Goddess's blessings and desire to see us grow and share her love and kindness. With her flesh, we shall armor ourselves towards the sins of the world. With her heart, we will find love towards her heart in all. With her spine, we will stand stronger. With her lungs, we will breathe in the fragrances of her Lilies. With her eyes, we will see the beauty in our fellow Man. : We pray for sun and warmth, and for the continued growth of love in each and every one of us. May you all go in peace. Church is dismissed. 1/24/241 : We have spoken of the Firsts before. But we will now continue into the scripture and continue through their Goddess led journey. : Thine crestless child first born from wallow and war. Whose children had thudded against the barren earth while spring sprung up from beneath their feet. Do you begin to become aware of the legacy you leave? It is not one of kindness or valor. It is riddled in sorrow, Your character mattered not because you were born without the Goddess's kiss. Whether you were a man or not had no relevance. To us who were born of power, love, conviction, and faith. You were mere swine meant for the slaughter. You subject your descendants to lives of misery because you desperately held onto your life. This is the tale of your great grandson, Whose lips will set in a permanent point and whose eyes will be stained wet with tears unshed. The world they were brought into was not a kind one. Not to people like you. : Follow his life, Young son born with the blood of a legend whose fame and infamy was the same. For what reason did they fight for you and your life. Child so pitiful and pathetic, you cannot even bear to cry because animals cannot show weakness in a world meant for man lest they be devoured whole. : Despite his forebears. People of succession, Queens and Kings, Heroes and Villains. He was born into irrelevancy, the blood of a dying caste. Thick with the defilement of common blood and of people greater than we could ever have imagined. He was the progeny of those who fell, too prideful to bend their knees and accept the death of his shameful grandfather who struggled for his succession and his right to live. : The seed sown in the soil had grown through the years. A crestless father and a crest loved mother. Yet he was not born with the love his mother had received. Not by the goddess nor by his neighbors, born to be hated and for his lineage to be cursed until time itself came to a halt, an end. : What was it like to be born a curse? He was a parasite of this world and of his family. Perhaps if his mother had never met his father. Things would be different. Yet the lull of fate was cruel so he could not even be spared the rotten truth of his existence. He came into this world as a wailing babe, eyes initially full of sparkle, full of life. Skin unblemished by hardship or time. Not an imperfection in sight. Until the world had realized, he too was a heretical wretch without the acknowledgment of their ancient mother. : His first years of life, lathered in the wings of his roots who swore to protect him with his life but there is only so much you can shield from a child's eyes before they learn the truth of this abominable world. Joy existed through the world given to him by his parents, laid out but a mere fantasy that would not prep him for the misfortune to come. Then the world burned down around him, around you. Your world scorched away. Torched by who your parents said could love you but son. No one could ever love you. You were not meant to be loved. The roof overhead disappeared, the warmth of another person's embrace had long since left you. Rest became a foreign phantom, inapplicable in this merciless life of yours. With his feet unadorned by soles to protect his from the jagged road he walked. With his body ruined by the hands of his fellow man, the remnant of lesions left in his mortal carcass. No longer was he beautiful. No longer was he that babe swaddled in woolen love, gentle and warm. Innocence became fleeting and flew from his grasp. : The pain did not stop nor would it ever stop so long as he lived he was meant to be punished, Live with the sin of breath as every inhale and exhale became a reminder of the mistake of his life. The grief of loss, the yearning to deceive himself and become someone else. His atonement to God was his suffering. The fluttering of his lashes was her blight and the crime imposed upon him. He lowered himself to survive. To spend his every waking moments crawling in the dirt like the pig he was. A mere swine forced to feast upon the trough and trash of what was handed to him. Unprepared for the world and a world that was unwilling to accommodate or recognize him. He was no different from swine. He would live like one to the end of his life. : This lesson followed him, it prevailed every aspect and every particle of his soul. He would never mean more than a pig feasting upon the trough, fed by the hands of those who'd come to kill him and he wept. He turned his head to the bright blue sky like a bird of morning. Crooning, crying with all his heart as his lips lay ajar and he pried his words from the very depths of his chest. "For what reason do I exist? For what reason am I alive? If I am only a mistake then why was I born. Mother my world, Mother of thine child and life itself. Am I not your son? Love me, I cannot beg for anything more than for you to love me." And the world heard him. They threw their heads back and they cackled, they grinded his boots into his back. : "You call her mother but what proof is there that she is any mother of yours? You lack her embrace, You lack her touch, you lack what makes you human. If not made by this earth then what are you made by? You live to suffer, that is your reason. Redemption in place of your ancestors, punishment that will be laid upon your children and your children's children. You are a sinner born because you had hoped for this world to love you. So live everyday of your life writhing in pain in repayment of the happiness of your birth and the disappointment of you that followed soon after." : And he wailed, he looked at the world. The green plains that rapidly expanded before him, the forest of leaves that towered over him with lifespans preceding him and succeed him. He saw the oceans and watched the fish flit through its waters and a tear slid down his face as his voice grew raw as the scream tore through his throat and he felt bile and blood pile atop his tongue. If this world would not love him then he would not love this world. He would not bare to look at it again and so the world filled that wish of his as their fingertips dug into the flesh of his face, the blood rolled down his cheeks and fell to the soil. This world was his tomb imbued with his desolation and so he would see to it that it would know even a fraction of what he felt. So long as he continued to try to be happy that would be his vengeance upon this world. : But could you understand the despair he felt when his babe eyes first opened, their smile brightened and they gave their first laugh all while a Crest shimmered across the skin of their chest. Mother, You had never loved him but you would love your granddaughter of many times. While the world had despised him, His daughter was celebrated, raised high above his head and out of his reach. Pulled from his grasp and into those of who she belonged with, The first oracle of spring. She was a lady as lovely and brazen as the wind that tore through the fields of flowers the sprouted from the earth but even she became someone unloved by her parent. He who turned away from her because how could he taint his daughter with the truth of his life. He faded into irrelevancy, his villainy, his infamy, all blinded by the existence of his own child. He would not be remembered. : Could you even say he left a legacy? This daughter was not his, She was of the goddess now. He laid upon the bed, alone with his eyes turned to the ceiling. Alone as his love had left him, alone as his daughter could not visit him, alone with him, himself and the goddess. A final tear, the only one he shed after his sobs many decades ago. His eyes wavered shut as he breathed for the last time. The greatest grief of his life was perhaps the loneliness he felt now in the last moments of his life. : And he was no more. You were no more. Their suffering was no more. Your suffering was no more. Their soul was no more. Your soul was no more. The absence of life and the cold darkness that existed after. Navigation Category:Concordia Category:Locations